The Best of 2006: Film

STEPHEN HUNTER

1. Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal." When Judi Dench, as an old pro middle school teacher in today's London, fixes on a miscreant in "Notes on a Scandal" and blows him away with withering sarcasm and an even more withering glare, you're seeing performance at its highest. Dench is without vanity -- that's why she makes a great M in the Bond movies -- but "Notes" presents an incredible technical challenge. As the "unreliable narrator," she must appear in one light and then slowly allow her delusions to be stripped away until her naked self is exposed.

2. Gong Li in "Curse of the Golden Flower." The great Chinese actress Gong Li returns to the care of the auteur of her greatest films in the martial arts -- marital arts! -- spectacular "Curse of the Golden Flower," directed by Zhang Yimou. But the movie is really Gong's: As Empress Phoenix, she is beautiful, suffering, plotting, maniacally in love with her sons and in hate with her husband, giving a towering star turn.

3. Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada." Is there a more enjoyable five minutes of feature film this year than Meryl Streep's riff on cerulean in "The Devil Wears Prada." Streep's turn as fashion-magazine czarina Miranda Priestly is powered not by bombast and pomposity but by the true expression of force, which is quiet. "Hmmm," she'll say, "I wonder why I don't have my coffee?" and immediately the office begins to self-destruct as the minions, fearing for life and limb, try to deliver a hot cuppa joe in the next 16 seconds. Streep's Priestly not only saves this average movie, she is the movie.

4. Jack Nicholson in "The Departed." Nicholson has never played such a lowlife thug and at the same time made you feel the fellow's cunning and ruthlessness. As Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," he doesn't play both ends against the middle, he plays all six sides of the cube against the center, and you feel him pulling strings. Yet as bad as Frank is, Nicholson makes you love the old trouper.

5. Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland." And finally, there's Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland," another not-great movie built around a great performance. Whitaker is Idi Amin Dada, the dictator of Uganda, who, in his rage and anger, murdered thousands while attracting the attention of the world for his outsized antics. Whitaker never makes a complete bobo out of him; his Amin is smart, knows when to charm, when to snarl. Watching him become progressively more unhinged is a great if frightening thrill.

ANN HORNADAY

1. Ben Sliney in "United 93." He didn't just play a harried air traffic controller in "United 93," he was that air traffic controller during the actual events of Sept. 11, 2001. The gray-haired, compactly built Sliney delivered the most indelible, wrenching turn in this year's most powerful ensemble performance.

2. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin in "A Prairie Home Companion." No, we're not cheating. Streep and Tomlin deserve to be mentioned for a shared performance in Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion," in which these two veteran actresses play singing sisters. Whether they're harmonizing on a hymn or talking over each other in Altmanesque patois, they're always in tune.

3. Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson." Gosling's portrayal of a drug-addicted schoolteacher in "Half Nelson" may be the year's most scandalously overlooked. Though most fans know this gifted young actor as the heartthrob in "The Notebook," here he proves his mettle by imbuing his complex character with equal parts idealism, self-pity, intelligence and vulnerability.

4. Shareeka Epps in "Half Nelson." See Ryan Gosling's entry regarding "Half Nelson" being scandalously overlooked; Epps, who made her feature debut as a student of Gosling's character, is yet another reason to put the movie on your Netflix queue. Epps more than holds her own with Gosling, providing watchful, quietly self-aware ballast as his character flames out.

5. Ted Haggard in "Jesus Camp." In this documentary, the evangelical preacher leers at a camera operator and says, "I know what you did last night." Well, it turned out what he had done last night was score some crystal meth and get together with a male prostitute. Meanwhile, this prevaricator and moral hypocrite had thousands of followers convinced he was a straight and sober man of God. Well played, sir!

DESSON THOMSON

1. The cast of "Apocalypto." As the pre-Columbian Mayas of Mel Gibson's Amazon-set drama, this ensemble -- Mexican and Native American nonprofessionals -- moves with a collective grace that would make Paul Taylor ache. Their limber movements, upright poise and the sonorous beauty of their Yucatek Maya language amount to a primitive human symphony.

2. Penélope Cruz in "Volver." So what if director Pedro Almodóvar forced her to strap a prosthetic tush to her hindquarters? The real voluptuousness comes in Cruz's performance -- a tour de force of Mediterranean emotions, ranging from mascara-drippy grief to ebullient singing. She's in wonderful Cruz control.

3. Helen Mirren in "The Queen." Cast as the emotionally frosty monarch in the Buckingham Palace imbroglio that followed Princess Diana's death, Mirren makes a subtle symphony of small gestures. Her every movement, eye flutter and seemingly innocuous utterance is testament to the suppressed passions roiling beneath that royal veneer.

4. Robert Downey Jr. in "A Scanner Darkly." Word has it Downey can't be nominated for an Oscar because his performance was "captured" and repurposed into digital imagery. But that's not technology that's making you watch him: It's the human actor. The fact that he's so effective in spite of being 'tooned makes his turn even more compelling.

5. Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale." Sean Connery imbued James Bond with hairy-knuckled, Scottish-accented manliness, but the Bond players since his departure -- mainly Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan -- have essentially been Ken dolls at the center of cinematic set pieces. Craig, with his snub nose, deep facial lines, gym-torqued build and sensual presence, has made us sit up and pay attention, once more, to the man inside the tux. Long may he work for MI6.